Wednesday, July 11, 2012

One of my all-time favorite dishes to eat is a homemade potato bake creamy and rich and filled with flavour. No packet sauce, just home peeled and thinly sliced potatoes cooked with butter and cream and some friendly onion and mushroom in-between. I make it often and especially when I want comfort food. But when we decided to cut out as much dairy as possible I sadly knew I would have to say goodbye to my potato bake that I loved so much ... I mean it has butter and cream in it! Anyway after much fretting I decided to try my hand at making a dairy-free potato bake *Drum roll please* And it worked! YAY! We now eat this yummy dish with no remorse or regret. I love it so much I don't even miss my other creamy dish I used to make (deadly serious and no lies promise)

This is one of those recipes where the recipe is just a guide line and you can alter it to suit your tastes and whats in your fridge

METHOD
Take the spring onions, wash and thinly slice and place in a pestle and mortar, mash into a mooshy paste (it doesn't have to be perfect). Add garlic and salt and mash some more. Add chopped fresh herbs and once they are mashed in add half of your coconut milk
Peel your potatoes and slice thinly.
Oil the bottom of a medium to large oven dish (like one you would use for lasagne)
Arrange a layer of potatoes on the bottom top with scattered slices of onion and pour a little bit of the "sauce" made with coconut milk - blobs every here and there.
Arrange layers like this with a layer of mushrooms or butternut inbetween the potato layers (or leave them out)
When all the potato and vegetables are used up pour the "sauce" on top and top up the bake with a little more coconut milk if you feel like it needs it.
Sprinkle a thin layer of onion on top and salt
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees celcius for 45 min or until brown on top and a knife inserted in the dish is soft

I made this tonight with asparagus, mushrooms and sweet potato. The herbs I used were rosemary and thyme. It was delicious, and my guests enjoyed it very much! Thank you so much for this great recipe :-)